A day in London

I had a full day in London today on a training course at the Nikon School just off Oxford Circus. The morning session was 'Composition Skills for Location Lifestyle Photography and after an hour for lunch we started the next session of Posing People on Location. Both sessions were led by the brilliant Kate Hopewell-Smith. who today is a well known wedding and location portrait photographer.

I learnt so much today my head is just buzzing! She taught us so much about composition and how to arrange people in a photo, particularly the differences between posing a woman and a man - it was all very enlightening. Her style is to push the boundaries and break the rules on shadows being darker than usually is accepted and to have the highlights blown out for that arty effect - as she says, her images would be thrown out of any photography competition as she breaks the rules but boy, are they cracking images!

I also had a play with various lenses and cameras that Nikon had at our disposal. I realised that I need would very much like the Nikon 35mm f/1.4 prime lens, wonderful for these location portrait shots.

I had an hour's break between sessions and went out (in the rain) to get something to eat and walked along Regent Street where I took this photo. Thank you John Nash for giving us one of London's most beautiful and elegant streets.